THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609120170
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY ELLEN RIDDLE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: 65 lines
Usually around midnight, I'm lying in bed reading.
I love the solitude the late evening brings. With my daughter fast asleep, it becomes my time to be an individual. But a recent Tuesday evening found me in quite a different setting: Kelly's Outer Banks Tavern.
I had no idea that while I lay night after night in my little alcove with only the sound of an uneven ceiling fan whirling overhead, not too far away, shut up in a smoke-filled, people-packed place, a mania breaks loose weekly.
Every Tuesday for the last two years, Shelley Mills, assistant operations director for WVOD radio station, has been playing compact discs for a dance-hungry crowd. Song after song sounds out a Techno beat that keeps a myriad of bodies writhing wildly. Come midnight, the braver ones step on stage to lip sync to their favorite tunes.
The night I showed up, the smoke was a killer. But the crowd mesmerized me.
With a bass drum beat driving them, dancers moved with wild abandon. Undulating bodies filled the floor and stage. Partnerless folk moved in unison. Couples did their own intimate thing. And groups formed and broke apart as they devoured the energy-rocking tunes.
The average dancer looked to be about 25. But younger and older ones also were stepping out.
I was impressed by the crowd's ethnic diversity. Here was a mini-world where dance and music created a common denominator. Some people unwound more recklessly than others. Some were content with just rocking back and forth on their heels.
No one was still.
The evening was passion-filled. But no trouble broke out. By the grins and camaraderie present, it was obvious everyone came to dance.
While the lip sync contest was supposed to be the main highlight of the tavern's midnight fest, and all evening sweat-drenched bodies signed up to perform, the crowd was entertainment enough for me.
Brave contestants showed their stuff, wildly shedding calories in hopes of carrying home the cash prize of 99 dollars and 10 cents - a figure that coincides with the station's frequency of 99.1.
The audience chose the winners by clapping and hooting. My companion remarked that it was a regular American Bandstand. Later he suggested I call my article, ``Silence of the Hams.''
We expected more theatrics from the lip sync dudes, who took the stage to mouth songs spun by Mills. But the contestants mostly just danced through the tunes. There were no costumes and little creative fanfare. Mills said this was unusual. Apparently we came on an off night.
It was clear that a scantily clad young woman, who was adept at moving body parts that I thought usually were fused together, had the bounty in the bag. ``Groove is in the Heart'' wailed from the speakers. Men dominated the crowd.
The roar of approval was deafening after her dance.
The Macarena manifested that night on the dance floor. The movers and shakers were quite expert at the new craze. Each had his or her own little twist to the line dance that's digging a global groove.
If you want to experience a collective, sweaty dance high, head to Kelly's Outer Banks Tavern on Tuesdays and turn on to the techno beat.
I dare you to jam out to your favorite tune a la lip sync style. You may even go home a little richer - in pop culture or cash. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
Contestants in the lip-synch contest wildly shed calories in hopes
of carrying home the cash prize of 99 dollars and 10 cents. by CNB